They didn't make it. The tsunami came in three waves, surging 200 meters into this Pacific Ocean resort town and dragging away the bus they'd piled into, hoping to get to high ground. Most of those inside were the retired Chileans, and only five of their bodies had been found by Monday, firefighters and witnesses said.

Pelluhue's horror underscored the destruction wrought by Saturday's pre-dawn 8.8-magnitude quake, which killed nearly 800 people and set off spates of looting in shattered towns without food, water or electricity.

Most of the deaths came in communities along Chile's south-central coast - those closest to the quake's epicenter - in the wine-growing Maule region that includes Pelluhue.

Survivors here found about 20 bodies, and an estimated 300 homes were destroyed. Most residents were aware of the tsunami threat; street signs pointed to the nearest tsunami evacuation route. The ruins of homes, television sets, clothes, dishwashers and dead fish cover the town's black sand beaches.

Aftershocks continued to roll through the region: 131 of magnitude 5 or greater struck in the first 72 hours after the big quake.

The region's biggest city, Concepcion, suffered waves of looting before some 1,500 troops arrived to enforce an 8 p.m.-noon curfew that finally brought calm by Tuesday. Nearly every store had been looted.

President Michelle Bachelet said 14,000 soldiers and marines were deployed for security across the region.

Fault off coast of U.S. a threat

LOS ANGELES - Just 50 miles off the Pacific Northwest coast is an earthquake hotspot that threatens to unleash on Seattle, Portland and Vancouver the kind of damage that has shattered Chile.

The fault has been dormant for more than 300 years, but when it awakens - tomorrow or decades from now - the consequences could be devastating.

Recent computer simulations of a hypothetical magnitude-9 quake found that shaking could last 2 to 5 minutes - strong enough to potentially cause poorly constructed buildings from British Columbia to Northern California to collapse and severely damage highways and bridges.

Such a quake would also send powerful tsunami waves rushing to shore in minutes. While big cities such as Portland and Seattle would be protected from severe flooding, low-lying seaside communities may not be as lucky